To: "VOCALIST" <vocalist>
Subject: RE: 20th century music
Date sent: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 07:40:58 -0800
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

IMHO:

Wow... Cool topic :)
The problem (or rather, blessing) with the Twentieth Century in the scope of
music history, is that people hear each other's music much more quickly than
they did say, 150 years ago. The styles are so unique and so varied that I
don't think one could come up with a single name. Is Webern pointilist? But
isn't Berg expressionist? (think Wozzeck). What does that say about Copland?
Cage? Britten? You see my point...

That having been said, My vote goes for expanding the Romantic era into the
20th century, probably up until 1975. After that, let's call it minimalist.
Except for Luciano Berio. Let's call him Dadaist. :-P Then, parallel to the
"Late Romantic" era, let's start "Expressionist" whenever Schoenberg decided
to "Liberate the Dissonance"

-Christopher Dwyer
San Diego, CA

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-vocalist [mailto:owner-vocalist]On
Behalf Of Sally Mir
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2000 7:14 AM
To: VOCALIST
Subject: 20th century music


Speaking of 20th Century music... We have lovely names for the different
historical periods
in music -- Baroque, Classical, Romantic, etc. -- But then we have this
completely
non-descriptive moniker for the music composed in the past 100 years. Do
you all think it
will always be known as 20th Century Music? Or will some other adjective
eventually come to
be the accepted label?

I know there are names that describe music of different compositional
techniques in the 20th
century (expressionistic, pointillistic, dodecaphonic, etc.), but how could
we classify the
entire period?

Let's take a poll: What would YOU call it if you had to name it?

Sally Mir